Merry Christmas!

Christmas has always been a busy time for me. I am the type of person who gets most giddy on the first day of December. That type of person who would have built a Christmas tree the earliest time possible. The type of person who would fill the Christmas tree with gifts for loved ones. I must confess that was the reason of my silence in this blog lately. I used to think that I have limited family gatherings in Toronto. Ever since I left my old profession, I seem to be replicating what I used to have in Manila. The number of get-together with friends from different parts of my life here in Canada happily has grown and scheduling has been intricate but I pulled through out of it in one piece and with a happy tummy. Here’s a recap of how my December looked like so far:
1. Christmas Dinner with GSK Pinoys

I could always count on my Filipino friends at GSK for constant get-together and play Christmas Santa. This year we went to Wok of Fame at Brampton and indulge with our yearly game of Secret Santa. This year I got myself a USB key shaped like a Christmas Tree. Did I say that I really love Christmas ornaments too?

2. Christmas Tree and new capiz angels from Tina (hailabshu!)

This year my little sister indulged me with capiz angels from Manila. Building my tree was such a joy as I saw the angels glitter and shine so elegantly. Take a look at the next collage. Don’t you agree with me?

3. EyeCandyTO Christmas Shoot
This Christmas, Abraham, indulged me and let me play to shoot our Christmas greeting to clients and friends. Appropriately overly-sugared from trying out the cookies and the hot chocolate milk and roasted marshmallows. I must say it is one of my most favorite shoots I have done with Abe so far :)

4. Johnny Jackson dinner with Jojo and Bruce.

I have meant to get a common time with my good friend Jojo for a while. With his night classes and my two jobs (sometimes seemingly three), schedule was hard to synchronize. I was quite lucky that when he gave me an impromptu call that I actually did not have any conflict. What was also good was that Bruce was able to join us as he was free of his own night classes too. Being a Friday night, I got to try the late night joint, Johnny Jackson’s. Will be blogging more about their food later on, I promise! Just a little preview, the mac&cheese was wicked!

5. Jeremy and Gabby’s Christmas Concert

For the past few years, one constant with my Decembers were attending my nephew and niece’s Christmas concerts. I have watched them grow and perform on these shows and this year was Jeremy’s last. I still get a kick watching the cuteness of the kindergarten class. The show always leave me with the gift of experiencing simple joys of singing Christmas carols and get me more into the season (even though I obviously don’t need any help getting into the Christmas spirit :) )

Early this month, Tere came up with an idea of shopping late into the night so she can leave her three daughters sleeping and finally do her Christmas shopping in peace. My sister Ayen too on board, the three of us went to Walmart at about 11pm. What a difference! No queues, no crowds and uncharacteristically quiet. I must say I was almost apologetic of making some noise. One warning though when you visit the Walmart at Scarborough Town Centre. Don’t park on the top floor. Park road level as they only leave one door open.
We also worked out an appetite and went to indulge with dimsum at Perfect Chinese Restaurant by Midland and Sheppard. Most convenient location as they are always open 24/7.

7. Ryerson Christmas beers at Dora Keogh

For such a long time I haven’t seen my Ryerson friends as we have gone forward with different things in our own personal lives. We finally saw each other last week at Dora Keogh’s by the Danforth and shared a few beers and caught up with everyone’s updates. It was interesting to note that there were 5 photographers at one table and we did not get to troubleshoot an overexposed group picture. I guess no one was really in the mood to think too far than to keep up with news of everyone’s lives. Yana got it all figured out when she came home. It was the copper table doing a pretty good job bouncing off the light. Funniest things happen when there are so many distractions, even with my photography :)

8. Christmas Cookies with Monika, Sepi and Arsha

Like I promised last year in my Christmas cookies post, I am not going to miss another year of doing my tradition of baking cookies with my best friends at GSK, Monika, Sepi and Arsha. It was good to spend a whole afternoon that dragged on late into the night in their company. It felt like old times. It is indeed a comfort to see how solid these friendships are despite me not being around them everyday. That in itself is a true gift :)

9. Christmas dinner with family

Two nights ago, I invited over my family to have dinner at the condo. I never knew why I haven’t thought of doing this before. But my sister pointed it out to me that maybe we would make this a constant every year. It was reminiscent of Christmas Eve’s in Manila of the chaos that happened opening all the gifts underneath my tree. I would definitely do it all over again!

So there was my list of things I have run around the past few weeks and I hope I am forgiven for skipping posts to enjoy the company of the people I love and care about. To all of you followers of Food Trippin’, have a joyous Merry Christmas and may your New Year bring you all the happiness and good cheer! :)